Moscow Struggles With Summer Smog

It’s a Moscow summer day to remember: it’s hot - up to 40 degrees Celsius - it’s stuffy, and there’s smog, smog, smog everywhere. Forest and peat bog fires near Moscow have covered the city with a yellowish smoke that residents find almost impossible to escape. Moscow is like a mirage - a ghost town with a shroud and an almost recognizable outline of the cathedrals, the Kremlin towers, churches. There’s a silhouette of Pushkin – the poet as a "stalker" in the zone of smog, and it seems that only he is without a mask. Gauze bandages, masks, handkerchiefs soaked in water, and even gas masks - without this protective gear sometimes it’s simply impossible to breathe. One can only hope that a change for the better, in the weather and air quality, in Central Russia is not far off. Photos by VOA’s Sergei Moskalev in Moscow